A simulation tool for managing environmental flows in regulated rivers

Steinfeld, Celine; Webster, Evan; Sharma, Ashish

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.08.006

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The watershed diversity of the threshold values should be considered. The hydro-station distribution and hydrological data were not available, which resulted in difficulties in terms of hydrological alteration in watershed implementation, and higher accuracy hydrological simulation tools for assessing e-flow were in need [53].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classifying Dams for Environmental Flow Implementation in China

Chen

McClain

2019

Sustainability

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The implementation of environmental flows is of the utmost importance for ecosystem protection and restoration in dammed rivers. A key challenge in optimizing dam regulation is the uncertainty of the ecohydrology relationship between flow release and ecological response. In the present paper, we develop a framework of dam classification to organize the categories of the ecohydrology relationship for implementing environmental flows. Dams are classified from three major categories that differ in dam properties, hydrological alteration, and downstream hydrobiological diversities based on the relationship of hydrology and ecology. Finally, 773 dams in China are screened and ranked into four classes involving a great diversity of environmental flow components. A classification of dams that utilizes the implementation of environmental flows is presented. (1) Class 1 includes dams with rare and endangered fish species in the downstream. It is the category with the highest priority for environmental flow releases and regulation, requiring continuous flow and flood pulse components for fish spawning and migration. (2) Class 2 includes dams with significant hydrological alteration in the downstream. It is the category with second priority for environmental flow releases and regulation, requiring natural hydrological regimes simulation or complete flow component recovery for optimizing the flow duration curve and mitigating adverse impacts of dam operation. (3) Class 3 includes dams with a high degree of regulation where there is urgency for environmental flow releases and regulation, requiring that minimum flow is guaranteed by cascade reservoir regulation. (4) Class 4 includes dams with a low degree of regulation where there is less urgency for environmental flow releases and regulation. This classification method is important for future research, including environmental flow release regulation and the effectiveness evaluation of environmental flow adaptive management. It will be useful for guiding the implementation of environmental flows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Classifying Dams for Environmental Flow Implementation in China

Chen

McClain

2019

Sustainability

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“…For example, the Australian and state governments have increased environmental flows in rivers of the Murray–Darling Basin by ‘buying back’ water rights from the irrigation industry. This requires active management for dependent aquatic biota (Kingsford and Auld, ; Bino et al ., ), because these environmental flows are primarily managed for large floodplains and they are held in storage and actively released (Steinfeld et al , ). Another example is the Mose project of the Venice lagoon, emblematic of rehabilitation of a wetland and its ecosystem services, designed to cope with expected sea level rise and intensification of extreme events to protect the city of Venice and the well‐being of citizens and tourists.…”

Section: Protection Mitigation and Rehabilitation Supported By Managmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetlands: conservation's poor cousins

Kingsford

Basset

Jackson

2016

Aquatic Conservation

209

112

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1. About 5-10% of the world's land surface is currently wetland but possibly >70% is already destroyed or impaired. Conservation of these unique ecosystems lags progress in other realms, reflected in high rates of biodiversity loss. Wetlands provide a range of critically important ecosystem services including fresh water, nutrient cycling, food and fibre production, carbon fixation and storage, flood mitigation and water storage; water treatment and purification and habitats for biodiversity. There is increasing recognition that these services provide real economic values.2. Wetlands are affected by numerous threats including habitat loss and degradation, climate change, pollution, invasive species, overharvesting and disease. The most serious impact is from habitat loss and degradation caused by upstream water resource developments and conversion to agriculture, industry and transport, and urban development.3. The status of the distribution and extent of the world's wetlands remains poorly known, varying among countries. Wetland loss has varied internationally, with generally higher impacts in the Northern Hemisphere, with its long history of conversion to urban centres, ports and agriculture and yet there are increasing losses occurring in developing continents in the south.4. Wetland conservation needs to focus primarily on identification of priority areas for biodiversity conservation and legal protection, including Ramsar-listing. Identification of wetland biodiversity hotspots for conservation should be an imperative, with associated Ramsar-listing. There also needs to be effective protection of flow regimes. Mitigation of other deleterious processes, pollution, overharvesting, invasive species and disease, also remains particularly important.5. Conservation of wetlands remains especially challenging, given the importance of fresh water for human communities, industry and agriculture. Without effective conservation actions, mitigation of threats, rigorous risk assessment and acknowledgement of the value of wetland ecosystem services, wetland conservation will continue to lag behind conservation in other realms in protecting the Earth's biodiversity.

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“…(1) Management unit classification Unlike biodiversity or conservation eco-regions and freshwater regions, the management unit of ecological flow regions was more complex. Much research has been carried out in developing simulation tools for managing ecological flow, and classification of ecological flow regions in the Mediterranean watershed (Alcázar & Palau, 2010;Steinfeld et al, 2015). Because of the integration of society and ecology, a social-ecological framework has been proposed to integrate multiple objects for ecological flow management (Martin et al, 2014).…”

Section: Ecological Flow Assessment Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practice on ecological flow and adaptive management of hydropower engineering projects in China from 2001 to 2015

Chen

2017

Water Policy

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In this study, 96 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of hydropower projects from 2001 to 2015 have been collected, and four parts of the contents including the project status, hydrological characteristics, downstream fish status and ecological flow have been analyzed by statistical methods. Thus, we built the ecological flow database of hydropower projects in China, and analyzed the differences of ecological flow release before and after the implementation of the 2006 guideline, based on spatial and temporal characteristics analysis in ArcGIS platform. We also analyzed differences between the calculation methods, release types, safeguard measures and monitoring measures of ecological flow. Meanwhile, we analyzed the ecological benefits of insurance for endangered fish protection. We focused on the effectiveness of ecological flow guarantee and shortages after the 2006 guideline. Therefore, ecological flow practices on hydropower projects in China have been summarized, and we suggested 17% of annual average flow as the ecological flow constraint red line, combined with the flow process demand. Then we put forward the prospect of ecological flow research and practice in China, by strengthening the research of calculation principles, cascade reservoir operation and ecosystem recovery and rehabitation.

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A simulation tool for managing environmental flows in regulated rivers

Cited by 7 publications

References 37 publications

Classifying Dams for Environmental Flow Implementation in China

Classifying Dams for Environmental Flow Implementation in China

Wetlands: conservation's poor cousins

Practice on ecological flow and adaptive management of hydropower engineering projects in China from 2001 to 2015

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